Materials Sciences and Applicatio n, 2011, 2, 1049-1057
doi:10.4236/msa.2011.28142 Published Online August 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/msa)
1049
DC Conductivity and Spectroscopic
Characterization of Poly (o-toluidine) Doped with
Binary Dopant ZrOCl2/AgI
Kiran Kumari1, Vazid Ali1*, Gita Rani1, Sushil Kumar2, G. B. V. S. Lakshmi3, M. Zulfequar3
1Advanced Materials Research Lab, Department of Chemistry, Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, India; 2Department of Physics,
Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, India; 3Materials Science Lab, Department of Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia, (Central Univer-
sity), New Delhi, India.
Received November 25th, 2010; revised January 19th, 2011; accepted June 10th, 2011.
ABSTRACT
Aqueous binary dopant (ZrOCl2/AgI) is used in different ratio such as 1:1, 1:2 and 2:1 (w/w) for chemical doping to
enhance the conductivity of synthesized Poly (o-toluidine) (POT). The doping of Poly (o-toluidine) is carried out using
tetrahydrofuran as solvent. Doped samples are characterized using various techniques such as I-V characteristics,
UV-Visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), FTIR and Photoluminescence (PL) studies. A significant en-
hancement in DC conductivity has been observed with the introduction of binary dopant. UV-Visible study shows that
optical parameters change considerably after doping. Interestingly, both direct and indirect band gaps are observed in
the doped samples. XRD patterns show the semi-crystalline nature of doped Poly (o-toluidine). FTIR study shows
structural modifications in functional groups with doping in POT. A Photolyminescence spectrum exhibits the emission
properties of the samples.
Keywords: Poly (O-Toluidine), Dc Conductivity, UV-Visible Study, X-Ray Diffraction, FT-IR and
Photoluminescence Studies
1. Introduction
Polymers are typically utilized in electrical, optical and
electronic devices as insulators because of their very high
electrical resistivity. The dielectric properties of hetero-
geneous polymers [1] play an important role in device
applications such as high performance capacitors, elec-
trical cable insulation, electronic packaging etc. Poly-
mers are usually polyconjugated structures, which are
insulators in their pure state; but when treated with oxi-
dizing or reducing agents they can be converted into
polymer salts having reasonable electrical conductivity.
Conjugated polymers are plastic semiconductors [2].
They have wide applications in devices such as solar
cells, rechargeable batteries, light emitting diodes, mi-
cro-actuators, electrochromic displays, field effect tran-
sistors, sensors [3].
In polymers, different processes such as can carry out
doping chemical and electrochemical. Recently metal salt
doping in Poly (o-toluidine) has been reported [4].
Among these polymers, Poly (o-toluidine) has attracted
much attention of many researchers due to its ease of
synthesis, processibility, good thermal stability and good
environmental stability. MacDiarmid et al. [5] investi-
gated Poly (o-toluidine) as an electrically conducting
polymer, which is emerging as a promising synthetic
metal. The possibility of synthesizing and doping of Poly
(o-toluidine) with protonic acid dopants containing dif-
ferent types of counterions is one of the key factors re-
sponsible for the versatility of this class of polymers.
Photoluminescent organic molecules are a new class of
compounds with interesting properties. They undergo
emission over a wide range from the violet to the red.
They can also be combined in several different forms to
produce white light. One category of organic material
with photoluminescence properties is conjugated organic
polymers.
In the present work, our approach is to study the bi-
nary metal salt (ZrOCl2/AgI) induced chemical doping in
Poly (o-toluidine) in the presence of distilled water and
tetrahydrofuran. The reason for choosing the combina-

DC Conductivity and Spectroscopic Characterization of Poly (o-toluidine) doped with Binary Dopant ZrOCl/AgI 1050 2
tion of ZrOCl2 and AgI as binary dopant is that ZrOCl2 is
a luminescent material contributing towards photolumi-
nescence; while AgI is a conducting material and hence
contributing towards dc conductivity. Therefore, by
choosing such combination, we can prepare a material
having good conductivity as well as phololuminescence
simultaneously. Sincere efforts have been made to un-
derstand the effect of binary dopant on the electrical and
spectroscopic properties of Poly (o-toluidine) using I-V
characteristics method, UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray
diffractometry (XRD), FTIR and Photoluminescence (PL)
studies.
2. Experimental Details
2.1. Chemicals
o-toluidine (Loba Chemie Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai, 99%), Po-
tassium dichromate (S.D. Fine Chemicals Ltd. Bombay
A.R. grade), Hydrochloric acid (Qualigens fine Chemi-
cals Ltd. Bombay A.R. Grade), Ammonia solution in
water 28% (S.D. Fine Chemicals Ltd. Bombay), Tetra-
hydrofuran (Merck India Ltd. Bombay A.R. Grade),
ZrOCl2 (S.D. Fine Chemical, A.R. Grade) and AgI (Hi-
Media Lab., A.R. Grade). The binary dopant (ZrOCl2/AgI)
is prepared by mixing their powders homogenously taken
as per their (w /w) ratio (1:1, 1:2, 2:1).
2.2. Synthesis and Chemical Doping
Distilled o-toluidine is used to synthesize Poly
(o-toluidine) (POT) by chemical oxidation polymeriza-
tion in acidic medium as suggested by Mac Diarmid [6].
Synthesized Poly (o-toluidine) (POT) is dried in oven
and grinded to obtain POT powder. Three system of bi-
nary dopant (ZrOCl2/AgI) having ratio (1:1, 1:2 and 2:1)
(w/w) are used. 2.0 gm POT powder and dopant having
2% (w/w) concentration has been used in 10 ml tetrahy-
drofuran (THF) solvent with magnetic stirring about 15
min, and then kept it in oven at 30˚C for 24h to perform
doping process completely in Poly (o-toluidine). The
physical state of binary dopant ZrOCl2/AgI is solid parti-
cles in suspension appeared milky in tetrahydrofuran
(THF). After this chemically doped Poly (o-toluidine)
was put in oven at 110˚C for 4 h to achieve moisture free
doped Poly (o-toluidine).
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Dc Conductivity
DC conductivity of undoped and (ZrOCl2/AgI) doped
Poly (o-toluidine) of the pellets (1.0 mm thickness) was
measured by using two-probe method at temperature
(298K). Dc conductivity was measured by mounting
them between steel electrodes inside a specially designed
sample holder. The temperature was measured with a
calibrated copper-constantan thermocouple mounted near
the electrodes. The samples were annealed to avoid any
effect of moisture absorption. These measurements were
made at a pressure of about 10–3 Torr. A stabilized volt-
age of 1.5V was applied across the sample and the resul-
tant current was measured with a pico- ammeter, which
gives Dc conductivity within ±1% of accuracy [7].
Conductivity is measured by using Ohm’s law,
V = RI (1)
where, I is the current (in Amperes) through a resistor R
(in ohms ) and V is the drop in potential (in volts) across
it. The reciprocal of resistance (R–1) is called conduc-
tance, the flow of current I as a result of gradient in po-
tential leads to energy being dissipated (RI2 joule s–1).
In Ohmic material, the resistivity measured is propor-
tional to the sample cross-section A and inversely propo-
tional to its length l:
R= ρl /A (2)
where ρ is the resistivity measured in  cm. Its inverse σ
= ρ–1
is the conductivity. It is found that Dc conductiv-
ity of (ZrOCl2/AgI) doped POT samples changes with
changes their ratio, and is shown in Table 1.
Dc-conductivity of pure POT increases exponentially
with temperature, exhibiting semi conductor behaviour.
The doping of conducting polymers implies charge
transfer, the associated insertion of a counter ion and the
simultaneous control of Fermi level or chemical potential.
The electrical conductivity of conducting polymers re-
sults from mobile charge carriers introduced into - elec-
tronic system through doping. At low doping levels these
charge carriers are self-localized and form non-linear
configuration. Because of large interchain transfer inte-
grals, the transport of charge is believed to be principally
along the conjugated chains, with interchain hopping as a
necessary secondary condition [8]. In POT, there are
nearly degenerate ground states, the dominating charge
carriers are polarons and bipolarons. It has been observed
that ZrOCl2/AgI doped POT is showing charge carriers
formation with linear configuration; as a result, conduc-
tivity changes substantially.
3.2. Optical Studies
UV-Visible study of doped Poly (o-toluidine) samples is
performed using Perkin Elmer Lambda Spectrophotome-
ter. Optical parameters such as absorption coefficient (α),
molar absorptivity or extinction coefficient (k) and en-
ergy band gap (Eg) have been determined for undoped
and (ZrOCl2/AgI) ratio (1:1, 1:2, 2:1) doped Poly
(o-toluidine) samples at 298K through absorption spectra.
The relationship between the optical band gap (Eg), ab-
sorption coefficient (α) and the photon energy (h) of the
incident photon is given by [9-10];

DC Conductivity and Spectroscopic Characterization of Poly (o-toluidine) doped with Binary Dopant ZrOCl/AgI 1051
2
Table 1. Optical parameters and DC-conductivity of Poly (o-toluidine) doped with (ZrOCl2/AgI) doping system ratio
(1:1, 1:2 and 2:1 (w/w)) at 2% dopant concentration.
 h  (h- Eg) n (3)
where n = 1/2, 3/2,…. for direct and n = 1, 2, 3, …… for
indirect transitions respectively.
It has been observed that both undoped and doped
Poly (o-toluidine) samples, show direct and indirect tran-
sitions. The direct and indirect band gaps both show de-
creasing orders; The extinction coefficient (k) is deter-
mined by the following relation,
k =
  / 4 π (4)
Absorption coefficient and extinction coefficient have
been determined using sharp increase of UV- Visible
absorption spectra at wavelength 400 nm as shown in
Figure 1. There are rising bends/curves at wavelength
380 nm, which is attributed to oxidized phase of the Poly
(o-toluidine) , another moderate peaks at 400 nm ap-
pears for all studied samples. In each ratio of doping, 2%
(w/w) doped sample attributed to transition with signifi-
cant shifting of peak at 400 nm, which is also further
showing the changes in optical and electrical properties
(Table 1).
It has also been observed, in (ZrOCl2/AgI) doped Poly
(o-toluidine) sample, that there is change in band gap (Eg)
at different ratio (1:1, 1:2 and 2:1) (w/w) the concentra-
tion of dopant increase. Absorption coefficient and ex-
tinction coefficient changes with changing ratio.
Conclusively, (ZrOCl2/AgI) play a significant role in
the chemical doping of Poly (o-toluidine), the measured
optical parameters is showing the significant changes.
Thus, the information about the changes in optical pa-
rameters by chemical doping with (ZrOCl2/AgI) may
explore the possibilities in the course of development
with new metal salts systems in conducting polymers.
3.3. XRD Studies
XRD patterns provide information in relation to the na-
ture and structure of the samples. XRD pattern of un-
doped sample of Poly (o-toluidine) shows the amorphous
nature. XRD patterns of doped samples (increasing car-
rier’s concentration) show the semi-crystallinity. The
DC-conductivity of samples increases due to the increase
in crystallinity of the sample.
Since the conductivity of polymers depends on various
parameters such as doping level (carrier’s concentration),
formation of polarons and bipolarons [11], the semicrys-
talline nature of polymers arises owing to the systematic
alignment of polymer chain folding or by the formation
of single or multiple helices, for part of their length [12].
XRD patterns of undoped and doped poly (o-toluidine)
with 2% doping concentration and binary dopant ratio
1:1, 1:2, 2:1 are shown in Figure 2(a)-(d). XRD pattern
of undoped POT sample shows an amorphous hump
around 28° and the doped samples have peak at 4°. As
shown in Figure 2(b), broadening of peaks in XRD pat-
tern have been obtained at about 27° - 28° corresponding
to ratio 1:2 binary dopant. In 2:1 doped sample, there are
three small peaks at 21°, 23° and 39°. The variation in
diffraction intensity with dopant concentration exhibits
with the interaction of dopant in POT network.
3.4. FTIR Studies
FTIR Spectra have been recorded for undoped and doped
POT (2% doped) with binary dopant (ZrOCl2/AgI) ratio
1:1, 1:2 and 2:1 (w/w) are shown in Figure 3(a)-(d).
Spectra have been recorded for undoped and doped POT
with binary dopant (ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w) ratio 1:1, 1:2 and
2:1 are shown in Figure 3(a)-(d). The broad medium
band at 3421 cm–1 in 1:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w) doped and
at 3439 cm–1 in 2:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w) doped POT have
been observed. These vibrational bands observed may be
explained based on the normal modes of Poly
(o-toluidine). The medium intensity band at 1586 cm–1
(as in undoped POT) is assigned to the C-N stretching of
secondary aromatic amine, which shifts to 1616 cm–1 in
2:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI) (v/v) doped samples. The band at ~416
cm-1 observed for undoped and doped POT samples is
the characteristic peak of C-H out of plane blending vi-
bration of benzene ring [13-14]. On comparing the IR
spectra of undoped and doped POT samples, the medium
band observed (in doped samples) around 1587 cm–1 is
Ratio of
(ZrOCl2/AgI)
(w/w)
Dopant
(ZrOCl2/AgI)
Concentration in
Poly (o-toluidine)
(w/w)
Direct band
gap Eg (eV)Indirect band gap Eg (eV)
Absorption
coefficient 
at  = 400 nm
Extinction
coefficient k
at  = 400 nm
Conductivity 
(S/cm)
Undoped 2.75 1.83 0.99 31.82 0.67 × 10–8
1:1 2% doped 1.44 1.45 1.50 47.73 0.73 × 10–5
1:2 2% doped 1.36 1.41 1.40 44.55 0.68 × 10–5
2:1 2% doped 1.38 1.39 0.90 28.64 0.78 × 10–5

DC Conductivity and Spectroscopic Characterization of Poly (o-toluidine) doped with Binary Dopant ZrOCl/AgI 1052 2
the characteristic peak of nitrogen quinoid ring and is
absent in Poly (o-toluidine) sample. The vibration band
at 416 cm–1 is assigned to the benzene ring distribution,
whose intensity increases with increase in dopant ratio
1:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w). The changes in number and
intensity of IR vibrational bands confirmed the dopant
interaction with Poly (o-toluidine).
3.5. Photoluminescence Studies
The photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) of
Figure1. Uv-Visible absorption spectra of undoped and doped Poly (o-toluidine) at different ratio of 1:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI) (w /w),
1:2 (ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w) and 2:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w) dopant mixture.
(a)
(b)

DC Conductivity and Spectroscopic Characterization of Poly (o-toluidine) doped with Binary Dopant ZrOCl/AgI 1053
2
(c)
(d)
Figure 2. (a,b,c & d): X-ray diffraction pattern of undoped and doped POT with ratio of 1:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w),1:2
(ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w) and 2:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI)(w/w) dopant mixture.
(a)

DC Conductivity and Spectroscopic Characterization of Poly (o-toluidine) doped with Binary Dopant ZrOCl/AgI 1054 2
(b)
(c)

DC Conductivity and Spectroscopic Characterization of Poly (o-toluidine) doped with Binary Dopant ZrOCl/AgI 1055
2
Figure 3. (a, b, c&d):Photoluminescence spectra of undoped and doped POT with ratio of 1:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w), 1:2
(ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w) and 2:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI)(w/w) dopant mixture.
(a)
(b)

DC Conductivity and Spectroscopic Characterization of Poly (o-toluidine) doped with Binary Dopant ZrOCl2/AgI 1056
(c)
(d)
Figure 4. (a,b,c&d):FT I R- spect r a of undoped and dope d P O T wi th ZrOCl2/AgI ratio 1:1 ,1:2 , 2:1 (w/w).
(ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w) doped POT has been performed and
is shown in Figure 4 (a-d). It is found that the relative
intensity of emission peaks alter with different ratio of
binary dopant and nature of solvent (due to polarity). It
has been noticed that the peak observed at 400 nm in
undoped POT shifts towards higher wavelength with
change in binary dopant ratio, i.e. 1:1, 1:2 and 2:1. In
addition, this peak becomes sharp and intense in the
sample having ratio 2:1 (ZrOCl2/AgI) (w/w) of binary
dopant. This may be due to interchain species, which
plays an important role in the emission process of conju-
gated polymers. The intensity of peaks depends on fac-
tors such as polymer coil size, the nature of poly-
mer-solvent, polymer-dopant interactions, and the degree
of chain overlapping [15]. The PL spectra of samples
have the same shape, which indicates that it is an effi-
cient way to tune the intensities of the peak by employ-
ing specific dopant with different compositions/ratio.
4. Conclusions
The present research work describes the strong influence of
aqueous binary dopant (ZrOCl2/AgI) in Poly (o-toluidine)
(o-toluidine) especially for optical and electrical proper-
ties. Doping induces a considerable change in optical
properties of Poly (o-toluidine) such as optical band gap,
absorption coefficient. It is interesting, that samples are
showing both direct and indirect band gaps, which
change with change in dopants ratio. Absorption coeffi-
cient and extinction coefficient also change with change
in dopants ratio. Dc conductivity of doped samples is
enhanced by three orders. XRD and FTIR spectra of
doped POT indicate the strong interaction of dopant with
POT
 -conjugation system. The substantial structural
modifications of doped POT occur as confirmed by XRD
and FTIR spectra. The intensity the emission peaks alter
with different dopant ratio and nature of solvents (due to
polarity).
5. Acknowledgements
Authors wish to express their grateful thanks to Materials
Science Laboratory, Department of Physics, Jamia Millia
Islamia (Central University), New Delhi, and Punjab
University, Chandigarh, India, for providing the experi-
mental facilities.

DC Conductivity and Spectroscopic Characterization of Poly (o-toluidine) doped with Binary Dopant ZrOCl/AgI 1057
2
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